Video of U of A ENGAGE Keynote by Dean Cynthia Nance Now Available

Whit Pruitt

Dean Cynthia Nance

Cynthia Nance, dean and Nathan G. Gordon Professor of Law, delivered her keynote "Quiet Leadership" for the 2023 U of A ENGAGE Spring Talk on April 4. Her keynote is now available for viewing.

Women often engage in quiet leadership. In many fields where they are underrepresented, they naturally serve as role models and sponsors for other women and often by necessity, advocate for policies that enable women to succeed. Further, women lead outside of the workplace, in their lives, quietly leveraging their human capital to bring together their collective resources to creatively solve problems and advance initiatives.

Among Nance's many honors and service roles are the 2023 Association of American Law Schools Ruth Bader Ginsburg Lifetime Achievement Award, Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers and the Secretary of Board of Governors, 2023 Lawyers of Color's Power List, the 2021 Richard S. Arnold Award for Distinguished Service in the Western District of Arkansas by the Eighth Circuit Bar Association, 2021 University of Iowa Hancher-Finkbine Medallion, the 2018 American Bar Association Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award, 2017 Arkansas Bar Association Presidential Award of Excellence and the 2017 Alpha Kappa Alpha, Mary Louise Williams, Guiding Star for Public Service Award. Nance is an elected member of the American Law Institute and The Labor Law Group, serving on its executive committee, and is a member of the Arkansas Advisory Committee to the United States Civil Rights Commission. She is the immediate past chair of the American Bar Foundation Fellows and a former Eighth Circuit Member of the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary.

U of A ENGAGE (Empowering Networked Groups for Arkansas Gender Equity) is funded by a $1 million NSF ADVANCE grant from the National Science Foundation to better recruit and retain women and women of color faculty within STEM departments.

The overarching goal of U of A ENGAGE is institutional transformation. By adopting policies and practices to support underrepresented groups and mitigate organizational barriers, U of A ENGAGE will make a positive difference to our faculty and university. The initiative targets gender and racial equity among faculty by focusing on valuing and integrating women faculty, while also enhancing efforts to recruit diverse faculty.